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Test Drive - 004

TEST DRIVE 004

Welcome to Aterat!

Here is our forth Test Drive Meme! There are a lot of areas of the city to explore, so please have a look around! In case you need a little help getting started, I've included a few prompts below, or feel free to start your own! Exploration and player initiative are the names of the game here!

Helpful Links to Get Started

Arrival & General Information | Locations & Bestiary | Residences & Housing Info | Businesses | Rules & FAQ (ask questions here!)

A. Crash into Me

Not exactly, but close enough. You have just arrived and received a strange satchel from a tiny, strange little man and are left more or less to your own devices (more information on what to expect upon arrival can be found here)! Follow directions to the north and check out the housing, or maybe have a look around the Historium and try to get some information from that giant glowing ball, see what you can waste your meager starter coin on in the Market District, or maybe just meet the neighbors.

B. A Winter's Ball

What brand new ballroom would be complete without a fancy new winter's ball to break it in? Things are a little strange at the ballroom (check the prompts) with mistletoe that traps you for a kiss with a random passerby, strange gray meringue that makes you willing to overshare, not to mention the fact that one of your strange possible overlords funded the whole thing. What's the worst that could happen?

C. We're all hanging out at the park, right?

The park near the Complex has become a glittering expanse of show! Children ~~and adults alike~~ build snowmen and even sled down some of the higher hills in the area. There are stands around the park selling hot chocolate, coffee, tea, and cider, as well as sweets and wrapped snacks for the day in the park. Speckling the park at regular intervals are standing fire pits designed to ward away the cold and allow for gatherings and conversation.

The pond in the park has frozen over as well, affording the abilities to ice skate as the ever-industrious Raimon is renting skates, and maybe even challenge people to a hockey game. How hard could it be to find some makeshift pucks and other accoutrements in order to play a game?

Tell Phone

The Tell Phones everyone are provided when they arrive are capable of voice transmission and texting as well and photo texts!

NAVIGATION

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He chuckled slightly and the boy's question, nodding. "Yeah, that's what it means. When I was your age, not long ago really, I living in London. Some stuff just sticks, ya know?" Like his accent, which had a slight East End sound to it he often tried to shake when he was handling business.

He shook his head at the boy's question. "Nah, nothing. Consider it a welcome present, for what it's worth."

If one could see the kid’s face, his expression might suggest that he questioned how long ago Jagger was his age. Then again, Mono wasn’t entirely sure how old he was. Ten sounded right? Or it was near enough, it wasn’t like anyone ever asked him anymore. At least... he was pretty sure it had been a while.

Instead, Jagger got a quiet, thoughtful sound at the comment. Slightly questioning, but not arguing the idea. “I don’t know London?” He said with a small amount of uncertainty. Only to add a small nod, “Yeah, stuff sticks.” Instincts and habits just formed after a while. He guessed Jagger meant words, but he did get it.

A welcome gift... Another one? “Oh...” Staring a moment or two longer, he finally gave in and accepted the cocoa. Taking the cup in his hands and letting it sit there for a moment to warm them. “It’s better than the bag.” He tilted his head at the item sitting next to him with its small collection of arrival gear. The hot cup definitely beat a bag of stuff that he wasn’t even sure he was going to use, at least at the moment it seemed like it.

Carefully, and with some hesitation, he used one hand to tilt the paper bag back enough for his mouth and nose to keep out. Sniffing the cocoa experimentally before taking a tiny sip, as if he was making sure it was what Jagger said it was. Once he knew it was cocoa? He made a small, unconsciously happy sound and took a longer drink.

Eventually he paused and spoke up almost out of nowhere. “I’m Mono.”

And we have a name!

He watched Mono take a drink with a frown, concern clear in his eyes. Why would someone willingly run around with a bad over their head as though that would protect them from anything?

"It's nice to meet you, Mono. Mind if I ask you a question, mate?"

It was an excellent question, though the answer Mono had for it might not exactly be that helpful... The kid took another drink, switching hands after a moment to let the other warm up around the cup.

The question made him pause though, bag slipping back down as he returned to holding the cup and turning his head to Jagger with a little uncertainty. “... Okay?”

He wasn't sure how the kid would react to the question, but he still needed to ask.

"Why are you wearing a bag over your head, Mono?"

A hand moved to tug the aforementioned paper bag a little more secure once Jagger asked his question, a slight adjustment of his shoulders and the way he sat suggesting he was 1. Concerned with where this line of questioning was going to go, and 2. Ready to leave if it went a way he didn’t like.

“It’s to hide my face?” He responded slowly, the answer entirely obvious without really explaining anything. “Like a mask.” The child added a second or two later, just in case Jagger somehow did not get the concept.

"Well, yeah, mate. I can see that." He had to be careful now, he could tell by the fact that the boy was skittish and ready to run.

"But why do you need a mask? What are you hiding from?"

At first he only offered a small shrug, his shoulders lifting hesitantly before falling again. The child was uncertain he wanted to explain, if only because the next question would probably be even harder for him to answer. “Just... Just people who don’t like me.” Pulling the hat from under his feet, he let them hang off the edge of the bench and moved carefully. He was just starting to edge off of it.

There was, however, a fault in this logic. Children (‘real’ children) were never left to their own devices in his world, they were always chased on sight regardless of who they were. Still, he felt like the mask helped some, almost like their reactions were somehow less unpleasant if they didn’t know it was him.

Mono wasn’t even sure what it was about him that made the people in his world react as they did.

"People who don't like you?" He got the distinct impression this boy needed a lot of therapy, though he chastised himself quickly enough from that line of thinking. While he was completely incapable of thinking of a world that would prompt a child to wear a bag over his head unironically, that didn't mean it didn't exist.

"Could you be more specific? I'm having a hard time following, mate."

Mono’s body language shifted a little more, his instincts edging closer towards flight. If only because, how did he get more specific? There was so much that he didn’t understand himself, and so explaining it seemed quite challenging.

Not to mention, he wasn’t entirely sure that Jagger would like the answer. What if he got suspicious? What if he thought about it and just... Got whatever it was about him that the people in his world didn’t like and his attitude changes for the worse?

Yeah, might be time to go.

“I don’t know, it’s just how it is?” He finally threw out hesitantly, finally sliding off the bench with the hat in one hand and the cup in the other. He was absolutely forgetting the bag in his hates, “Um... Thank you.” He added, wincing a little as his feet touched the snow under the bench.

He was losing him and he'd only just gotten the guy talking. He frowned but didn't move any closer, or move as though he was going to try to stop Mono from leaving. The last thing he wanted to do was give the boy a reason to run. He tried his best to make his voice non-threatening, which he'd been told wasn't hard for him. He sounded pretty harmless most of the time, though his partner Chaz liked to say it was because of the accent. Everything you say sounds cute. Wanker.

"You're welcome, mate. Anytime, but you don't have to go. What do you mean people who don't like you? Why don't they like you?"

Mono would disagree on the matter of having to go. He always had to go, had to stay on the move and keep ahead of... whatever was behind him at any given moment. But Jagger’s voice was, indeed, quite non threatening. Something in his voice that lacked that underlying tone that would have set him on edge. It didn’t really sound like he had ulterior motives here, nor did it seem like he had any.

Which was really strange and felt wrong honestly? Somehow, not knowing if there was a trap laid and trying to find it was worse than simply being chased.

But the kid was at least hesitating, shifting his weight from one foot to the other. He could still run, especially as his tone sinks further, barely a whisper as his shoulders rose and fell again. “I don’t know... I don’t know why.”

They just saw his face and got incredibly riled up, at least that was how it felt.

"You don't know why, but you do it anyway?" There was definitely a story here, and one Jagger was quickly aspiring to reach the bottom of. He moved slightly, edging closer to the other side of the bench. He didn't know how long Mono had been sitting there exactly before Jagger had joined him, but if Mono was nervous enough, he might have left a psychic imprint on the bench, something his psychic abilities could latch on to, to get an idea of why Mono was trying to run. Had someone or something been hunting him?

“Yeah...? It’s just safer.” Mono responded, a little lost on how to explain it to Jagger. He’d never really had to explain this to someone before. Even Six had just taken his word for it, or at least she’d seemed to... Then again, they’d been on the run a lot... Not really a lot of time for conversations, and neither of the children were particularly talkative by nature. “Does it matter...?”

Seriously, why did this stranger seem concerned with the whole matter? It didn’t really make sense to him... Were other worlds really so different? We’re people really so different?

When Jagger edged closer to the other side of the bench, Mono moved a few unconscious steps further back. He hadn’t been here for terribly long before Jagger joined him, so there wasn’t much to go on... Which, if Jagger knew better, he might have considered himself lucky, all things considered.

What he might have gotten was a faint smell of static buildup, ozone off an old crt tv might have lingered. With the sounds of a child screaming (oddly, not Mono’s voice), and wood splintering before the sounds of slapping of feet on hardwood as if someone were running hard. All the while the sounds were accompanied by a menacing, high-pitched frequency and that faint smell... Both were abruptly cut off by the sounds of a train rolling quickly down tracks.

Then it all faded to nothing.

It was faint, the trace he was able to pick up from the bench Mono had occupied so briefly, but it was enough to get a read on him. He didn't sense the fear the boy had felt, really, but from what he heard and smelled, he could assume it existed. He could feel the vibration of the train before he heard the rolling motion approaching, the vague vision connecting with a childhood memory of the platform in the London Underground. He'd been chased himself and could recognize the sound of pursuit well enough.

The vision didn't last long, but it left his heart fluttering with adrenaline as though he had been pursued himself, as though he had been caught by a thundering locomotive in the middle of its tracks, but he still didn't know why the bag, except perhaps.

"Anonymous. You...you don't want to be seen...as a threat?" He shook his head. That wasn't right, but it wasn't far off, that much he knew. "I..." He cleared his throat, nervously running a hand back through his hair. "Sorry, mate. I, uh...see things, sometimes, or hear them. Things that happened, mostly. Someone was chasing you before you came here...and...they chased you across railroad tracks? There was a train coming?" It was too vague to know for sure.

When Jagger fell silent for a moment, Mono started to think that he’d taken his word on the matter and he could take his leave while the man moved across the bench. In fact, he’d turned away and started walking when the man spoke up again.

His words brought Mono’s retreat to an abrupt halt.

The child turned and tilted his head slowly to one side, then to the other as Jagger explained what he’d seen... No, what he’d heard? The man had said he heard things sometimes in his explanation, and he wasn’t quite close enough to the truth to say he’d seen anything. But he was close enough to say he’d really gotten something with his apparent ability.

People with abilities weren’t exactly unheard of, Mono had abilities that he didn’t understand himself... But usually the adults he met with abilities were... Different. They were worse than the viewers; they were smart and almost predatory, for lack of a better word. The amount of them that he’d been chased by made it hard to see it any other way.

But Jagger almost seemed nervous himself, and he’d apologized, which was weird enough. So while the kid was still feeling cautious and didn’t move back towards the bench... He stayed where he was and let his curiosity lead him, if only until he figured out if Jagger had some kind of angle or not.

“Yes, there was someone chasing me...” The man in the hat, impossibly tall and imposing. There was just something so off about the man, and the fact that he’d been drawn in to the man’s domain? That he’d been driven to open the door that released him in the first place? It had left Mono feeling more unsettled and scared than he had with any of the other residents of the Pale City... Ultimately, it had caused him to lose the one friend he had. “They tricked me...” He mumbled, shuffling from one food to another in the snow with some obvious anxiety.

There was one thing that was a little off about Jagger’s interpretation, but it was easy enough if all he’d heard was sound. “They chased me in a train.” A train that was stationary, nothing really seemed to operate in the Pale City anymore. “I tried to get away. So I unhooked a car on a hill?” And it had begun rolling downhill, slowly at first and then picking up speed the further it got from the man’s influence and gravity took over. Out of control and with no way to stop it, but it still ended the chase.

Then suddenly he was here.

"You unhooked a train car?" That was impressive in itself, for a little guy Mono's size, let alone quickly figuring out how to unhook it. It spoke to his intelligence and his ability to quickly adapt to changing situations. Maybe Mono would be okay here after all. That didn't mean he didn't need someone looking after him. Children could be very good at survival, but they all needed to be cared for and loved, protected. They deserved that much. Jagger didn't know if he was the one to do it, but it still needed doing. Lord knew he'd needed it as a child, and someone to believe him.

Mono needed someone to believe him.

"I..know it's hard to believe, mate, but I believe you, and I'm not going to hurt you. I'm not going to tell you to stay and talk, either, but I have an office in the Market, the Gullwings, if you want to talk."

The question is met with a small, uncertain shrug and a nod. He wasn’t really sure if it was unbelievable or not. It had been the only idea that had come to him at the time. Running up to that point hadn’t gotten him far, and that had worked. At least he thought it had, because now he was here and he couldn’t really say what would have happened next.

But whether he should or shouldn’t have been able to manage it hadn’t crossed his mind then. Of course, the question did make him wonder a little... Most of what was on Jagger’s mind would have made him more than a little confused too. None of that certainly didn’t line up with his experiences.

The child relaxed a little when Jagger spoke next to reassure him that he believed him. It was a relief considering Mono wasn’t sure how to explain it in a more believable way. His body language was still a little guarded, but perhaps not so much as before. His stance had relaxed, he didn’t look quite so tightly wound as he had when the conversation started. So... While he didn’t necessarily know if he could trust Jagger (that would take a little more time), the man did seem to mean it when he said he wasn't going to hurt him. It was a start.

“The Gullwings.” He parroted back a moment later, definitely picturing a seagull in an office for just a quick moment before common sense won out. It was still a weird name to call your office, though.“Okay... The office at the market.” Mono sounded a little uncertain, but not entirely opposed, so Jagger might be surprised. The kid might just take him up on the offer...

After all, curiosity was a strong motivator if you could get past the fear. He was definitely curious about a lot right now between this world and Jagger himself... And the guy seemed nicer than he was used to. But for now, he was cold, and he wanted to find a warm place to think over their conversation and try to wrap his head around it and this world. So he edged towards the bench again to take his ‘welcome’ bag, a little uncertain how to really say goodbye considering he didn’t usually have to worry about those. Finally he decided to go with another nod, and a “Thank you.”

Hard to say if it was for the hot chocolate or the offer... (It was both.)

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Test Drive - 004

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